A Midsummer Night's Daydream
by Acastus
Summary: Aang, terrified of facing the Fire Lord, is plagued by nightmares and hallucinations. Unable to sleep, he receives an unexpected visit from an old friend...


Avatar: The Last Airbender Created By: Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko  
Avatar: The Last Airbender Owned By: Nickelodeon, a subsidiary of Viacom  
Doctor Who Owned By: the evil BBC

 _A/N:_ _Set in Avatar's third season during the episode_ _"Nightmares and Daydreams" and just after Doctor Who's season fourteen story, "The Deadly Assassin."_

* * *

 **A Midsummer Night's Daydream**

"Whatever it is, I won't do it! Do you hear!?"

The Doctor spun himself around as he yelled to the heavens, holding on to his hat, his enormous multicolored scarf fanning out around him.

"I won't, I won't, I won't!"

The heavens did not respond.

It was evening, wherever he was, and a pleasant one at that. A rolling countryside of grass and small knots of deciduous flora ended at a sheer cliff that fell away into a wide expanse of ocean. A light breeze and a warm climate spoke of a lazy summer night. Behind him a beat up, blue Police Box stood dark and silent. In the distance high buttes of exposed rock rose high into the air. Overhead a large moon illuminated the landscape in a ghostly pallor.

"If you think I don't know the difference between a navigational error and deliberate interference you're mistaken!"

He walked over to a smooth boulder rising out of the ground and sat down. He took off his hat and ran his hands through his shock of curly brown hair.

The lanky alien could almost hear her voice.

" _Oh Doctor, you're being childish again."_

He opened his mouth to reply, before realizing once again that she was gone. They'd traveled together for so long he had trouble remembering what it was like to wander the universe alone. He felt empty, that much he knew. It hurt, but he would not allow himself to recognize it.

A bag of jelly babies appeared in his hand. He looked at it as if he'd never seen it before and shoved it ruthlessly back in his pocket.

He stood up.

"Well, at least it isn't Scaro… and it doesn't look like Karn."

His most recent missions for the Time Lords had been unpleasant. At least when they sent him to Scaro they'd had the decency to tell him what they were on about. On Karn, they had just dumped him into the meat grinder. Him and Sarah. There it was again, the emptiness. He drove it away with the fond memories of the adventures they'd had with Harry.

"Clumsy, ham fisted idiot," he said with a grin.

Harry was probably having tea with the Brigadier, and Sarah, well, she was in South Croydon. That's where he'd left her.

"Well… it sure looked like South Croydon anyway…" he equivocated.

He had thought about going back to get her with disturbing frequency. Why not? They could pick up right where they'd left off. After all, Gallifrey was saved, the Master was dead… probably dead… and he had earned his freedom. In fact, he was now Lord President of Gallifrey, couldn't he do what he wanted?

But he didn't.

 _Let her move on with her life… while there is still time._

Solitude would get him nowhere. He walked over to the cliff's edge and peered out over the placid sea. The steady break of the surf hundreds of feet below spoke of deep sleep and vivid dreams. He kicked a stone off the edge and heard it bounce around before hitting the beach at the bottom.

What he needed was a distraction.

As if on command, the sound of soft moaning broke his reverie. A grin broke out across his face. Stuffing his hat back on his head, he marched in the direction of the unhappy noise.

A short distance away he saw a young boy of perhaps twelve or thirteen sitting amongst the roots of an ancient tree. He was bare chested, but wore grey pantaloons with a dark maroon sash. His forehead, however, bore a telltale arrowhead tattoo, partially covered as it was by short, curly dark hair. It had been a lifetime since he had seen one like it.

"Why hullo there, young airbender!"

The boy looked up at him. Dark circles under his eyes stood mute testimony to his predicament.

"I see, can't sleep, eh?"

Shaking his head the boy replied, "No, I can't, it's terrible. I'm so tired, but I can't sleep, and every time I do, I have these horrible hallucinations! Really, I'm just waiting for Appa or Momo to sit up and start talking to me!"

His voice, innocent and unbroken, nevertheless carried with it the weight of worldly cares.

The bag of candies reappeared.

"Appa and Momo, eh?" the Time Lord repeated sympathetically, "Here, have a jelly baby!"

The boy looked up at him with an expression of uncertainty.

"They're quite good!" the elder man said, taking one out and popping it into his mouth with a smile, "Here, try one!"

"I'm sorry, sir, I don't mean to be rude… but, who are you?"

The young airbender was exhausted, but curious, with only the barest trace of suspicion. This was true to form. Airbenders were a trusting lot. That was one of the reasons they had been so easily exterminated. Yes, he remembered that tragedy, but perhaps that was in the future.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! Here I am offering you a jelly baby before I've even offered you my name!" the words came out in a tumble as they often did, but they gave the young boy some comfort because he smiled in return, "I'm called the Doctor, I'm a traveler you see, and you are…?"

"Oh, uh, I'm… Kuzon," the boy replied, taking a jelly baby.

"Kuzon!" the Doctor marveled at the obvious lie, "Kuzon, I'm delighted to meet you!" he said, shaking the boy's hand.

The boy ate the candy, but the smile faded from his face as the exhaustion once again exerted its iron grip.

Suddenly the boy's eyes went wide with surprise and fear.

"Hey wait, how did you know I'm an… oh."

The bandana lay next to him where he had dropped it. Sokka would kill him if he found out he'd blown cover like this, but then, the island was _supposed_ to be deserted. The boy sat up and examined the stranger closely. He was tall and wore strange clothing, a brown overcoat, grey pants and a vest of indeterminate color in the failing light. Strangest of all was the enormous patch quilt scarf he wore. He didn't look like he was from the Fire Nation, but he had to know for sure.

"Pardon me… uh, but are you from the Fire Nation?"

"What? Me?" the Doctor laughed in reply, pointing at himself and putting the jelly babies back in his pocket, "Why my dear old chap, of course not! I haven't been to the Fire Nation in… oh, three hundred years!"

The boy looked confused.

"You're in the Fire Nation right now."

"I am?"

"Yes, you mean you really didn't know that?"

"No, not at all, I assure you, like I said I'm a traveler, but why are you so concerned I might be from the Fire Nation, eh? If you're already here?"

"Well…" the boy clearly hadn't thought the line of questioning through. He looked down at his feet which began to curl inwards.

Since he was clearly reluctant to elaborate, the Doctor decided to change the subject.

"Don't worry about that now, mmm? Let's talk about your other problem, but then of course they might be related. Why can't you sleep? Can you tell me that?"

The boy thought for a moment before replying.

"I guess they are kind of related, but, you're a doctor, right? Maybe you can help me."

The Doctor forced out a large breath. He didn't want to mislead the boy.

"Well, my doctorate is purely honorary, but maybe I can help if you tell me what the problem is."

The boy suddenly got up, his face stretched tight with stress, and began waving his arms about in an animated fashion.

"I have to do something that's really hard! And if I don't do it, a lot of people are going to get hurt, people I really care about… and a lot of other people I don't even know!"

"Oh, I know just the feeling," the Time Lord replied automatically.

The boy stopped gesticulating to observe his new companion.

"You do?"

"Yes," the Doctor commiserated a bit absently, "I find myself in that kind of situation all too often, I'm afraid."

The boy came over to stand before him, hope shining in his eyes.

"Really, so what do you do?"

The Doctor chuckled and told him the truth.

"Oh, I just make it up as I go along!"

The boy wilted at this response.

"That's what I've been doing… and it isn't going so well."

"So what is this hard thing you have to do, eh?"

The Doctor's huge, hypnotic eyes bored into the boy's. His friends were in danger, the world was in danger, and he needed help. The stranger before him exerted an aura of kindness, so he decided to risk a little more information. The boy looked around to verify they were alone before continuing. He sat heavily back down and folded his arms across his knees.

"I have to defeat the most powerful firebender in the world… but… I don't know how."

It clicked. There was only one person this could be. The Doctor sighed and removed his hat. Such a heavy burden, even for an old soul, it was no wonder the boy couldn't sleep. Poor little chap. Whether the Time Lords sent him or not no longer mattered. This was why he was here.

"Ah, I see," he said gently.

The Doctor sat down next to the boy and crossed his legs.

"That is a hard thing indeed."

"And it's even worse than that," the boy continued, clearly obsessed, "I think I'm supposed to kill him! But the monks taught me that all life is sacred. Even if I could kill him, I don't know if I can make myself do it!"

The boy put his head in his hands.

"Please, Doctor, tell me what to do," he said, speaking into his lap.

"I'm sorry, my dear boy," the Doctor said in a low, understanding voice, "I can't tell you what to do, but I can tell you a story to pass the time a bit."

The young airbender looked up at his strange companion.

"Once, not so long ago, I had to do something I thought was wrong too. In that situation, though, I thought I had to kill an entire race, rather than a specific person."

The boy's eyes widened.

"A whole race?"

"Yes," the Time Lord confirmed solemnly, "as if I had to wipe out every last human being on earth, or every last, uh," he quickly flipped through his memory to summon the correct names, "ostrich horse or buzzard wasp."

"Well, most people wouldn't mind if you got rid of the buzzard wasps."

"That's exactly what everyone thought about these beings I was sent to destroy, for they were destined to become the most evil, pitiless race of conquerors the universe has ever known."

"What were they called?" the boy asked in fear and wonder.

"At the time, they had no name, they were just defenseless, slimy little creatures in a madman's laboratory."

"You mean they were… made? Created in some way? That's terrible! Why would anyone do such a horrible thing?"

"That is a long story, much longer than we have time for now, but the main point is that I knew that if these creatures were allowed to survive, they would grow up to destroy countless worlds and put countless more into slavery, including the world where most of my friends lived, a world very much like your own."

"So, did you do it?" the boy asked in small voice, clearly afraid of the answer and the implications it had for his own struggle.

"No," the Doctor replied, "I found another solution, but it wasn't perfect."

The boy breathed a sigh of relief.

"How did you stop them, then?"

"I didn't, I just delayed them for a long time."

"So, they survived to do all those bad things?"

"Yes, but not for thousands of years, and when they did emerge, it was to a much stronger universe that was in a much better position to oppose them. Still, I failed to change their basic character, and yes, much of the destruction they reeked remained unaltered, I'm afraid."

"Do you… regret not killing them?" the boy asked, his countenance once again tense.

The Time Lord blew out another large breath.

"Sometimes," he admitted, "Like I said, the solution wasn't perfect. You'll find, if you haven't already, Aang, there are no easy answers in life."

The cheerful alien paused to regard his young companion. Here was one of the few beings who could remember past lives as he could. He had met the Avatar long ago, as a young girl named Irulan in a city, a secret garden, called West Portal. She and her garden had perished. He closed his eyes, a cloud passing over his face at the memory.

"I want to find another way, Doctor," the young airbender continued, so intent on his train of thought that he failed to notice his companion's change of address, "I really do… but what if I can't?"

"Um?" the Time Lord prompted, disturbed from his reverie, "Oh, nonsense! Of course you can! You just haven't found it yet is all."

"But no matter what I learn or where I go, I can't seem to figure out what to do when I finally face him!"

"Well," the elder man replied with a laugh, "you might not be able to figure it out until the moment comes! Opportunity is often like that, my dear old thing, it knocks at its own convenience."

The boy looked downcast.

"I'm sorry, Doctor, but that doesn't really help."

"No, of course it doesn't," he readily admitted, "but it's often true. Besides, consider the alternative, eh? Either you move forward and face the challenge, or... or what?" he scoffed, his large eyes bugging out suggestively, "Surrender?"

The red swathed airbender looked up at the Doctor and sighed.

"That's not really an option."

"Of course not!" the Time Lord agreed emphatically.

"If I surrender… or if I lose… I'll never see my friends again! They'll be killed or turned into slaves! I can't let that happen!"

The boy averted his eyes from the Doctor's piercing blue orbs.

"I can't let that happen to them," he repeated, his voice sagging with exhaustion, "I can't let that happen… to her."

 _Ah yes, a special friend, I think._

"You see," the Doctor congratulated with a broad smile, "you have all the motivation you need, young man, I haven't the slightest doubt that things will work out just fine."

"What do you mean?" the boy asked, lifting his head to look once again into his companion.

"Well," the curly haired traveler replied with a twinkle in his eye, "it's good to be noble and try to save the world, but it's never as powerful as when you need to protect someone important to you."

The young man considered this for a moment.

"You're right… I am doing this for the world, but mostly I think about the people closest to me. Do you… have someone like that?"

The question stabbed. The Time Lord cursed himself for walking headlong into an obvious trap. A memory unbidden swallowed him whole.

Suddenly he was walking down the asphalt lane towards the Nunton nuclear power plant. She had followed, even when he'd clearly told her to stay behind, stay safe. She wore an Andy-Pandy outfit. She bounced along beside him. She was adorable.

" _I worry about you_ ," she said when he finally acknowledged her presence, "… _and besides, I'm from Earth and you're not_."

" _Yes, but…"_

" _Oh, but what?"_

" _I worry about you."_

The memory faded and only the faintest scent of her hair lingered. He looked over at his young friend.

"Yes, Aang, I do… and that's why… that's why I know you won't fail."

The Doctor stood up. It was time to go.

"Hey!" the boy cried as he followed suit, "How do you know my name?"

The Time Lord looked into the boy's eyes, illuminated by star light, and smiled.

"We met long ago, Avatar Aang, in a different lifetime… for both of us."

Aang took the elder man by his hands.

"But, but, can't you stay? You could, you know, tell me about my past and maybe help me…"

"No, my young, old friend," the Time Lord said gently, extricating himself from the young man's grip, "this isn't my story, not this time."

The Doctor smiled and placed a few more jelly babies in the young man's hand.

"Travel broadens the mind, as they say, so I'm off," he jammed his hat back on his mop of unruly curls, "but I think we'll meet again."

Aang smiled, tired, but glad to have met a new, old friend. He put the candies in his mouth, but as he chewed his smile faltered.

"But wait, how do I know you're not just another hallucination!?"

The elder man's expression turned wistful.

"Ahh, well, you don't, do you? Especially since you just swallowed the evidence... but don't worry, you can always ask Appa or Momo."

Suddenly they both laughed.

Aang bowed.

"Thank you, Doctor, I'm not sure if I can fall asleep yet, but I think you helped me somehow."

The Time Lord bowed in return and walked back to the Police Box in the clearing behind them.

Moments later the Avatar was alone, watching the stars in silence.


End file.
